Season's Greetings!

An ad campaign started circulating (literally, on buses) in London:

"There's probably no God.
Now stop worring and enjoy your life"

Obviously, if there is and you haven't done what the religious fundamentalists told you to, you'll end up in Hell. Then again, if you follow what the religious fundamentalists, life is a living Hell.
And worse, if you follow what the religious fundamentalists preach and they are wrong, screwed thou shalt be anyway!

In the end, it's a 50% chance you end in Hell. And also 25% that your life will be Hell:

|---------------|----------------|----------------|
| LIFE | Live by | Not live by |
| CHOICE | The Word | The Word |
|-------------------------------------------------|
|Fundamentalists| Paradise | Hell |
| right | +living Hell |+living Paradise|
|-------------------------------------------------|
|Fundamentalists| Hell | Paradise |
| wrong | +living Hell |+living Paradise|
|---------------|----------------|----------------|

Also check Russell's teapot, sometimes called the Celestial Teapot.

Happy Winter Solstice celebrations
(whatever name you give them)!

Ensino em Portugal... e na Finländia

Nem tudo é perfeito na Finländia, como algumas mensages que circulam por aí referem.
Mas melhor que Portugal é, se margem para dúvidas. Os dois primeiros lugares em todos os testes PISA demonstram-no.
Näo se podem fazer omoletes sem ovos. Pode-se "passar administrativamente" em Portugal para agradar às estatísticas, mas depois quando uma amostra aleatória de alunos é testada com os seus pares a nível mundial, nem em 20.o lugar chegam, atrás da Índia e outros países "desenvolvidos"...

Mas no fim de contas, o último ponto, o 8, e cito
"Na Finländia os professores têm tempo de preparar as aulas e säo felizes".
Corroboro, até porque sou casado com uma professora finlandesa.

Ela näo trocaria a sua profissäo nem quereria reformar-se, como 81% dos professores em Portugal.

Capitalism 2.0... or Socialism 2.0

The Bush Economic Doctrine:

- Cut all regulations from the markets, invoking that the "Invisible Hand" will take care of everything
- When the above fails miserably:
1 - Give handouts to financial institutions that have taken management decisions which contradict the principle of self-preservation, including pushing for subprime lending
2 - Give subsidies to inefficient companies which have products that nobody wants

I don't think that socialists (the ones who advocate a greater influence of the State in the economy) were not exactly thinking that *this* would be the turning from capitalism to socialism, but the world is full of surprises...